Yesterday, my wife and I closed on our second Veterinary practice. Eight months ago, we opened the doors at our Sugar Grove startup. We are building True.Vet together, side by side, and yesterday’s closing came with a real sigh of relief. The acquisition process was long and tiring. When my LOI was accepted, the terms of the deal felt straightforward. What I learned is that there is so much more that goes into an acquisition, even a one-doctor practice, than I had expected. Less than 24 hours in, we have already been hit with a few bumps. They are new challenges, and they are ones I know I am built to take on.
I want to write about this now, before the answers are tidy, because what I feel today is happiness. I get to be part of the history of a practice that has served its community for 33 years, and I am excited to bring my own thoughts, ideas, and mission to something already alive and trusted. The hardest part of practice ownership, in my opinion, is committing to it and taking the leap. Yesterday I took it again.
The thesis There is an old debate in our profession about whether you should start a practice from scratch or buy an existing one. I am running both, side by side, on purpose, so I can compare and contrast in real time which path teaches me more and how each one moves a community forward.
Stepping into a client base on day one is exciting in a way the startup could not be. That used to terrify me. Eight months at Sugar Grove curtailed those fears. I am also excited about the responsibility my team and I now share to help this practice grow in revenue and profitability so it can serve more pets and people at greater scale.
Here is the line I want you to hold on to. The buy part does not come without the build part. Even when you buy an existing practice, you want it to grow. The acquisition is not the end of anything. It is a launching point. Sugar Grove has grown quickly. I am genuinely curious to see what the rate of growth looks like in this new practice once we get to work.
What Sugar Grove Actually Taught Me
I am not going to claim that I built a specific system or workflow at Sugar Grove that paid off the moment I walked into this acquisition. That would be a tidy story, and it would not be true.
What did pay off was the mindset I set during every interview and every hire at Sugar Grove. I hired for growth mindset, willingness to innovate, and a real desire to rethink what Veterinary medicine and Veterinary practice can look like. I wanted a founding team that would reimagine the profession, and I got one.
That is also where my honest hesitation with this acquisition lives. I am inheriting a team I did not get to interview the same way, and I had to trust the seller’s read on her own people. The alignment we built throughout the process gave me confidence the transition would work. Now I get to apply what I learned founding Sugar Grove to a new team in a new location, while keeping the same mission, vision, and core values across both practices.
What This Practice Already Has
The practice came to me through two completely separate paths. A veterinarian I was speaking with referred me to the seller. Around the same time, my parents were at dinner with an old priest friend who turned out to know the seller as well. Two different people, two different conversations, one practice. That kind of synchronicity built trust between us right out of the gate.
What she has built over 33 years is inspiring. The practice grew from a strip mall to a stand-alone building, with a long-standing team that has earned the trust of its community over decades. That is something I am passionate about preserving.
My day one posture with the existing team has been to share my passion for client service and how we are going to rethink what Veterinary practice can look like in the years ahead. There is already a strong people-first approach in the building. I am intentionally not changing much right now. I want to sit back and observe what they have done well to keep this practice thriving for more than 30 years. It will be hard for me to just watch for a little while, but I still have a lot to learn.
The Theories I Am About to Stress-Test
A few of the ideas I have been writing about are about to get tested in real time.
The first is the Two Clocks framework I shared in this publication last December. The buyer clock and the seller clock have to align for transitions to work, and I am now living the buyer side of that equation in a real deal. Part 2 will go inside that alignment.
The second is spectrum of care. I want to be clear. Spectrum of care is not a new theory. It is what independent practice has been built on for generations. This practice already offers plenty of care options across that spectrum, which complements the way I practice rather than getting reinvented by me.
The third is technology. I want to give the seller real credit. She has already implemented AI scribing and is using large language model AI in other parts of operations. This is by no means a paper-records acquisition. The base is more advanced than what I have seen in many practices, and I am excited to grow and expand on it.
True.Vet was never going to be one practice I want to say this part directly. True.Vet is not just a brand. It is a platform for launching an ownership career, intentionally built outside of traditional joint venture models and outside of full independent ownership. The vision is a community of early-career owners, supported by a model designed to set veterinarians and teams up for long-term success.
This brings together the parts of the profession that I love. Practicing Veterinary medicine. The strategic business side of running a practice. Mentorship for medicine, leadership, and business.
If you are an early-career veterinarian or a current owner thinking about what comes next, and any of this resonates, reach out. I am open to conversations about both startups and acquisitions.
What is Coming in Parts 2 and 3
Part 2 will go inside the acquisition itself, end to end. How the practice came to me, what the LOI through closing actually looked like, the surprises I did not see coming, and where the Two Clocks framework held up and where it needs sharpening.
Part 3 will be the comparison. By then I will have been running both practices long enough to give you an honest read on what travels from build to buy, what does not, and what each path is uniquely teaching me about people, technology, and growth.
Not many veterinarians will get the chance to live both paths in parallel. I am going to share what that experience teaches me, both the wins and the bumps, as it happens. Stay tuned!